Gift
by howmanynimons
Summary: Clara finds a baby on the doorstep of the Maitlands house. The next twenty-four hours may just be the most stressful of her life. Slight spoilers for the Name of the Doctor.


**Gift**

It was early Wednesday morning in the Maitland house. George Maitland had gone off for a business trip the previous night, and wouldn't be returning until the weekend, Artie and Angie Maitland were both in bed, savouring their last few hours of freedom before the schoolday came around again. In fact, the only person awake in the household was Clara Oswald.

The reason that she was awake was quite complicated, and she'd never admit it to anyone, least of all the big-chinned man that was currently plaguing her thoughts. She knew, of course, that she'd have to go to sleep eventually. But if she went to sleep, then the dreams would come back, and she didn't think that she could cope with them for much longer.

So, she was sitting at the dining room table with a cup of tea in her hand and a book in front of her. It was taking quite a lot of willpower not to fall asleep, and the words on the pages were getting all jumbled, but she refused to close her eyes for more than a moment. She would not go to sleep, and she would not dream.

Her resolve was about to fail her, and she was about to fall forward, face planting her book, when she heard a loud knock at the door. It was to the tune of shave and a haircut, two bits. She glanced towards the clock, and frowned slightly when she saw the time. 4am. Who in their right mind would be knocking on the door at this time of night, erm, morning.

She instantly assumed that it was the Doctor. Her silly chin boy, it _was _Wednesday, but he'd obviously undershot by a bit. It was typical, he never got where he was aiming for when he was aiming for. That was part of his charm though, she supposed.

Still, better not keep him waiting. She placed her teacup down on the table and stood up. It took her only a few seconds to reach the door, but it took her nearly half a minute to find the key and unlock it. What she saw when she swung open the door was certainly not what she had been expecting. Not at all.

At first, she assumed it had been bobby knockers, because there was certainly no one there. Either that or the Doctor had realized his mistake and run off to the TARDIS in an attempt to avoid being caught. She had been just about to close the door, when she heard a noise. A sort of gurgling laugh, the kind you'd expect from a… Oh. Oh no. No no no.

Clara gaped at the thing on the doorstep. No way. This kind of thing only ever happened in cliché books or movies. There was no way this was happening. It must just be her tiredness making her hallucinate or something, perhaps she's actually fallen asleep and this is just a dream. Yes, that has to be it! Just a dream! If she pinches herself… No, she certainly felt that.

This is real. Oh God, but how can it be real? So many thoughts are racing through her mind, but she decides to take everything one step at a time for now. She carefully bends down and picks up the Moses Basket on the doorstep, careful not to rock it too much. She then turns and enters the house further, being sure to close and lock the door behind her.

When she reaches the living room, she doesn't return to the table. Instead she sits on the sofa, the Moses Basket perched on her lap. She peers into it cautiously, seeing the little face of a baby peer up at her. Oh _God_. This is really happening. Someone's left a baby on the doorstep.

She reaches her hand towards it cautiously, and it makes the gurgling laugh again, smiling up at her. It doesn't seem to care that it's 4am, it seems pretty wide awake without a hint of the crying that's so stereotypical of babies.

"Oh my stars…" She breaths, still just staring at it, "Who'd leave you on a doorstep like that…?"

And that's the thousand pound question. Who _would _leave a baby on a random persons doorstep like that? There has to be a reason, there's always a reason. She supposed that it being an alien baby isn't out of the question… She'll just have to ask the Doctor about that when he comes to visit… If he comes to visit. It seems that lately the TARDIS has been more temperamental than usual, despite the fact that it's a Wednesday she still isn't sure if he'll actually turn up.

"One step at a time…" She reminds herself quietly. What does a baby need, even…?

Then it hits her. Food. Milk. Nappies. Of course the Maitlands don't have anything suitable for babies, the last time a baby was in the house was around twelve years ago after all. She glances at the clock again quickly. 4:15am. She wonders if Artie and Angie will notices if she sneaks out to buy some things for the baby, or whether the baby will be able to last for another four hours, when the Maitland children will both be in school.

She looks down at the baby, it's staring at something… She follows its gaze to see a candle on the mantel place. The baby is staring at it with a look of wonder on its face, and Clara can't help but smile slightly. For all she knew, it could be the babies first time ever seeing fire. She has to admit, that the baby _is _pretty cute.

"Clara, why do you have a baby?"

Her head snaps up and she sees Artie standing in the doorway. He's still dressed in his pyjama's and he looks very tired, and confused too. She can only imagine what's going through his head at the moment.

"This isn't what it looks like," Admittedly, she doesn't know what it looks like, but she doesn't think there's any harm in saying that, "I just found it. On the doorstep."

Artie takes a few more steps into the room, not taking his eyes off Clara and the baby. Clara's a bit worried that he'll find some way to turn this into blackmail, but she doesn't let her worry show. Slowly, a smile starts to spread across Artie's face.

"That's awesome! She's so cute!" Artie sits down on the sofa next to Clara, staring at the baby with a look of awe.

Clara's about to tell him to go back to bed, and that he'll need his energy for school in the morning, when she realizes what he's just said, "Hold on, she? How do you know it's a she?"

He's looking at her like she's pretty stupid now, and she feels like that was a silly question to ask. But she still doesn't know the answer, so she continues to stare back at him, raising an eyebrow.

"She's got a pink blanket. With babies, pink normally means girl." He says it so simply, and Clara certainly does feel silly for not working that out sooner. She blames her tiredness, although she's not sure if she'd have been able to work it out had she been well rested.

Artie reaches his hand over towards the baby, and she giggles, it's less of a gurgle this time Clara notes, and reaches up to his hand, grasping one of his fingers. She's looking at it with an expression of deep concentration, and for a moment Clara's sure that she's about to do something extraterrestrial, but instead she just lets out another loud giggle.

Artie looks up at her, "Have you brought anything for her yet? Like, food and milk and nappies?"

She wonders when he got so sensible, but of course she doesn't voice that thought, "No… I only found her half an hour ago."

Artie grinned and jumped up, "Okay! I'll go get dressed then we can go get some stuff!"

He seemed so excited, but Clara knew that she couldn't let him come out with her at 4:30am to buy baby supplies. That wasn't a very nanny-ish thing to do, and besides, he had school in three and a half hours.

"You can't come with me, Artie. You need to go back up to bed so you have enough energy for school."

He shook his head vigorously, "No, you need my help! Phoenix has a little baby sister, and so I know loads about babies! Besides, it's not like you know what to get her."

That was true, but no. Clara knew that she couldn't let him come with her, "If you come, then what about Angie? If she wakes up and there's no one in the house?"

It was clear that Artie was trying to stop himself laughing, "What? Angie won't wake up! She sleeps like a log! It'd take a bomb going off for her to wake up, and we'll be back by the time she _does _wake up!"

Clara _knows _that she's going to regret this, but she really can't think of any other reason why Artie shouldn't come with her, "You know what, fine. Just don't tell your dad."

Artie grinned and ran out of the room, Clara assumed he was heading to his bedroom to get changed. She looked down at the baby again and sighed, "What _are _we going to do with you?"


End file.
